Newspapers in the Phillipines

One thing I have done every day for many years is to read the newspaper. When I lived in San Francisco I got the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle delivered, and also read the Bay Guardian and the Bay Area Reporter (an LGBT newspaper) weekly.

Here in the Philippines, there are many newspapers published. Most are in Tagalog, about 2-3 dozen different dailies, mostly in tabloid form. The Tagolog papers are usually 10 pesos each (about 25 cents).

In English, there are 3 daily newspapers that are available in Manila as well as in many provinces:
The Philippine Star
The Philippine Inquirer
The Manila Bulletin

It’s often a bit difficult to find newspapers. Most 7-11 stores sell them, and perhaps 1 in 20 of the small “sari-sari” stores that line most roads sell newspapers. Some major hotels will sell newspapers. Mini-Marts and other convenience stores may sell newspapers. Most shopping malls do not sell newspapers, and most bookstores do not. You can buy newspapers at the Mall of Asia, one of the largest malls, in Manila.

You can find the International Herald Tribune, published by the New York Times, at some of the best hotels in Manila. If you are living in Manila you can get daily delivery of the IHT. In the provinces, even in Tagaytay, the only delivery available is several days later, for about 3 times the cost.

There are several other English dailies that you can get in Manila, and sometimes elsewhere. Most of these have a business focus.

The best day for newspapers here is not Sunday, but Saturday. The Saturday Manila Bulletin has a 16-page insert from the New York Times. The Manila Bulletin will often print the full transcript of speeches by US presidents. All 3 of these dailies often carry editorials from the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, or other major US newspapers.

On Sunday the newspapers are larger, but the ad content seems higher and the news percentage lower.
The prices are the same every day – 18 to 20 pesos for the 3 dailies. The other English-language dailies tend to be around 30 pesos, for a larger-format but much thinner paper.

Much of the content of the newspaper here is promotional. There is often not that clear a boundary between advertising and news. Many of the articles are basically press releases from a corporation, promoting their latest offering.

But there is also real news. Lots of news about the Philippines, both national politics and issues and local or regional news. Also many “lifestyle” stories. You can learn a great deal about life here by reading the newspaper.

In the Philippine Inquirer, always check the second or later pages of the Metro section for world news. The Philippine Star has a World section.

The Star and the Inquirer have the best editorial and opinion pages. My favorite columnists are William Esposo (“As I Wreck This Chair”) in the Star, and Conrad de Quiros (“There’s the Rub”) in the Inquirer. Both bring a sense of Philippine history to their treatment of national politics, and often cover international topics as well.

A note about William Esposo. I first read his column because I
loved the title – As I Wreck This Chair. I continued reading because of his intelligence, writing skill, command of history, and because I usually agreed with his opinions. Then I had the experience myself of destroying a chair. There are a lot of flimsy plastic chairs here, made of resin. We had a few in our kitchen in our old apartment in Batangas. One day I was sitting on one and all of a sudden I was on the floor. Since then I avoid sitting on those chairs. I’ve lost some weight but I think I’m still a bit too heavy for them. So I can identify with William Esposo.

Of course, all these papers have Internet sites where you can read the news from anywhere in the world.
Here is a list:

http://www.philstar.com/

http://www.inquirer.com.ph/

http://www.mb.com.ph/

http://www.chairwrecker.com/

http://dequiros.blogspot.com/

May 8, 2011 – 3:46 am Categories: Uncategorized | Comments (1)

Comparing cost of living: San Francisco vs. Tagaytay

I’ve been saying for a long time that the cost of living in the Philippines is about 1/10 of San Francisco. This is my personal estimate, based on my 9 trips here over the last 4 years, and on living here the last 3.5 months. In total I’ve spent about 7 months here over 4 years.

Of course, this is an average. Not everything costs 1/10 of what it costs in San Francisco. Some things cost 1/20, some things cost more. But this average is based just on my impressions, and is therefore biased and based on small sample sizes.

In this post I will attempt to give a wide range of examples.

Because exchange rates vary, I will give both dollars and Philippine pesos for each amount, using the recent rate of 43.5 pesos to the dollar.

Of course, cost is not the only relevant issue. There are also issues of availability, convenience, and quality. For some things, equivalent quality here is very hard to find and more expensive when you do find it, but adequate alternatives are much cheaper.

Haircuts and highlights

For example, let’s look at men’s haircuts. For my first 8 trips here, I thought they cost about 50-100% of the cost in San Francisco. This was because I only had my hair cut at David’s Salon, a chain of salons here that you can find in most malls and cities. For example, at David’s Salon in Tagaytay a haircut and highlights cost me $37 (1600).

But last Fall, my boyfriend Dindin suggested I have my hair cut by his hairdresser, in his town of San Pascual, Batangas, as it would be much cheaper, and I always like Dindin’s haircuts.

When I was done, I asked Dindin what it cost, he said 50 ($1.15). I was in shock. I didn’t believe him at first. The haircut was every bit as good as the one I got at David’s. A month ago I had my haircut at a salon here in Tagaytay. It looked a bit more sophisticated than the place in San Pascual, and Tagaytay is a mountain resort where lots of expats live, comparable in costs to Manila. I got a haircut and highlights for $6.44 (280). Had I gotten the haircut only it would have cost me only $0.87 (38).

So, instead of haircuts being 1/2 to the same cost as San Francisco, I would now say they are about 1/20 the cost.

Rent

Let’s take a look at another essential of life, housing. Rents vary widely, as does the availability of places to rent that are comparable to what you may be used to in the USA. For example, in San Pascual I rented a two-bedroom apartment for about a year. Rent was $103 (4500) per month. However, the apartment had no air conditioning, no hot water, no tub, and no shower. There was a bathroom with a modern flush toilet, and a faucet and drain in a washing area. The “kitchen” consisted of a sink, some counters, and some cabinets under the counters and sink. We bought a small refrigerator and a portable 2-burner electric stove for the kitchen, and used a fan. The apartment was fairly large. It was on the second floor of a small building that had a vehicle repair shop on the first floor, set back only a few feet from the National Road, a  major 2-lane road that serves as both a highway and a local road. The road noise and road dirt were both extreme. The road dirt made it impossible to get the place clean. Although I learned to sleep there, it was kind of like sleeping directly underneath a freeway. It felt like I was only 1 foot underneath in fact. Still, in San Francisco you can get a storage cube that is about 4 feet by 5 feet for $103 a month.

In January, 2011, Dindin and I moved to a 4-bedroom house with a large outdoor pool in Tagaytay. (See my last post for a detailed description of the house.)

When we moved to the house in Tagaytay, we vacated the apartment in San Pascual and took a different apartment, on Dindin’s family’s land. This is much smaller than the old apartment, but below the level of the road, so it is cooler, quieter, and gets very little road dirt. For that we pay Dindin’s mother $69 (3000) per month.

The house is located in a mountain resort/tourist area, similar to Lake Tahoe. Rent is $805 (35,000) per month. For the first two months we had no hot water and very poor water pressure, however these problems have been fixed, we can now take hot showers and hot baths. There is still no hot water on the first floor, including the kitchen. I’ve learned that you don’t really need hot water to wash dishes. The washing machine is probably beyond repair, and the jets on the whirlpool tub will likely never work, but the 3-burner stove and the microwave work. And, miraculously, one item I thought would never work now works fine – the oven. We roasted a 2.8k (6 lb) chicken the other night, it was delicious. The house sits on a 600 square meter lot, on a quiet, lushly wooded street only 5-10 minutes by car (30 minutes walking) from the center of town.

A similar house in Lake Tahoe I’m guessing would cost several thousand dollars per month at least to rent year-round, which put rents here at about 1/5. In other areas outside of Manila, such as San Pascual, it is probably closer to 1/10. Manila is probably closer to 1/5 than 1/10. So I would say, in general, rents are about 1/6 of San Francisco.

Property

What about purchasing property? According to the constitution of the Philippines, foreigners cannot own land, however you can own a condo. I’ve been looking at condos in Manila for several years now. The cost ranges from $46,000 (about 2 million) for a very well-constructed small studio apartment in a good area of Manila to $180,000 (about 7.8 million) for a very large 3- bedroom apartment. Both are in the newest modern hi-rises, built to withstand a 7.0 magnitude earthquake, with significant building amenities (gym, pools, gardens, etc.), but not parking, included.

In San Francisco, a small studio in a good neighborhood will cost you $375,000 or more, and a large 3-bedroom condo will cost you around $1.5 million.

Massage

Two days ago I had a pain in my shoulder blade, I wanted a Thai massage. The Thai massage place nearby didn’t open until noon, so I went to another spa. A full body massage cost $10.35(450). It was a good massage but I still had about the same pain, so I went for a Thai massage that afternoon. The Thai massage cost $5.75(250), and it reduced my pain by about 90%. I went back for another Thai massage the next day.

Groceries

A trip to the supermarket to buy a week’s worth of groceries for 2 people costs me about $110 (4785) here, versus about $150 for one person in San Francisco. However, that may not be a very useful comparison, as I’m not buying the same things (mostly because they are not as readily available here). (And yes, I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I spent that much on groceries in San Francisco. I have a very restricted diet and try to eat very healthy. But I digress.)

In working on the examples below, I realized there is a very simple way to do these conversions.

If something costs 100 pesos per kilo, at a conversion rate of 43.5, that means the price per pound is about $1.04.
((100/43.5)/2.2)

Some specific examples:

- Chicken legs, raw, cost about $3.22 (140) per kilogram. A kilo is 2.2 pounds, so that’s about $1.46 per pound, about half the cost in San Francisco.

- Salmon, the most expensive fish here, when you can find it, costs about $13 (588) per kilo, or $5.90 per pound. That’s between 1/5 and 1/2 the cost in San Francisco.

- Cabbage costs 55 pesos per kilo, about 57 cents per pound.

- Cantaloupe costs 50 pesos per kilo, about 52 cents per pound.

Vehicles and Transportation

I did a lot of research before buying a car here. In general, it seems that most new cars cost about 150% of the cost in the USA. I think the main reason for this is the import tax. Also, buying a new car here is a bit different. This is one area where the haggling over price takes place in the USA, but not in the Philippines. The price is the price. They have different incentives each month or season, which are available to everyone. You can’t negotiate the price. My theory about this is that the car dealerships, like most companies here, seem obsessed with youth in their hiring. There are no laws against age discrimination in employment. I went to 5 dealerships and found only 2 salespeople I would describe as competent. Companies want to hire young, good-looking people, especially for jobs involving contact with the public. While age and experience are valued on a personal level much more so than in the US, in the work world they are often not valued at all. It’s interesting that in the spheres of family and intimacy Filipinos are less youth-obsessed or ageist than people in the USA, but in the sphere of work they are much more ageist.

I found a way around this problem. I ended up purchasing a Toyota Innova, an “Asian Utility Vehicle” (minivan) that is made in the Philippines. I suspect that is why you get more value for your money with the Innova, the lack of import tax. In any case, 3 months later I am still thrilled with my purchase. I paid about $25,000, which I think would be a good deal in the USA as well.

In Manila, a taxi cab across the city will cost you about $3.00-$6.90 (130-300), depending on whether the cabbie uses the meter or demands a flat rate. A jeepney ride in a province (small bus with no air-conditioning, often very crowded – everyone sits but maybe not comfortably, travels distinct routes but stops at any point for passengers to board or leave) costs between 16 and 23 cents (7 to 10 pesos).

Computers and electronics

This is an area where I would say costs range from 75% to 110% of San Francisco. I recently bought a new laptop here, a Samsung, it uses an Intel Core i5 processor, has 4 GB RAM, DVD R/W, webcam, etc. I paid about $1,011 (44,000). Again, I think the reason is the import taxes on electronics. I also bought a new cell phone recently. I got a MyPhone, which is made by a Filipino company. I paid $87.36 (3800). A comparable Nokia phone would have cost me 2-3 times as much here.

This page puts the cost of living in the Philippines at between 1/5 and 1/4 of the USA. That might not be at all inconsistent with saying the cost of living in the Philippines is 1/10 of San Francisco, as San Francisco is one of the costliest cities in the USA.


http://www.worldsalaries.org/cost-of-living.shtml

Another way to express the cost difference is to compare my total budget for living expenses in San Francisco vs. in Tagaytay. I am spending much more than 1/10 of what I spent in San Francisco, for two reasons: 1) I am supporting two people instead of one, and 2) I have significantly increased my standard of living.
I estimate that I’m spending about 1/3 of what I spent in San Francisco, however, I’ve increased my standard of living in a couple significant ways:

- Instead of living in a 2 bedroom/2 bath condo in downtown San Francisco, I’m living in a 4 bedroom house with a pool in the mountain resort of Tagaytay. I’m renting out the San Francisco condo for about $3000 a month, about 3.75 times the rent I pay for this house.

- Instead of driving a 16-year old BMW 325i convertible, I’m driving a brand-new Toyota Innova (minivan).

So I think I will stick by my estimate of 1/10, but with an important caveat for anyone considering a move: You will likely take advantage of the cost differential to increase your standard of living. So, even if you move from a high cost area such as San Francisco, your costs here will be higher than 1/10.

March 21, 2011 – 1:40 am Categories: Uncategorized | Comments (6)

A new home in paradise

I was reflecting today on how wonderful our house here in Tagaytay is, even though today we have no running water in the house. More on that later. I was sitting outside, on a beautiful cool, breezy day, in one of the three swinging benches in our backyard, next to our pool, smoking a cigar, as the sun shone through the clouds. After the cigar I took a swim in the pool.

Yes, today we have no running water. Most days we have running water, but less than ideal water flow, and very limited hot water. The plumber is already scheduled to come tomorrow to install the water pump sitting in the driveway, which hopefully will improve our water flow, but not so much that it draws water pressure from the neighbors and causes ill will on our block.

Aside from the problems, which are slowly being fixed, the house is truly wonderful. The front and back is beautifully landscaped. From the balcony off the master bedroom I look out, across the street, to a beautiful expanse of trees and plants, almost jungle-like. To the left of our property a very large house stands almost completed; soon another expat from the USA will move in there. To the right, facing the front of our house, is a one-story house where a German expat and his Filipina wife live, and next to them is a 3-story orange house, where I think another German expat lives.

The balcony in the back of our second floor is much larger, and looks out over the pool. The lot is 600 square meters, and includes a gazebo encircled by a small moat where a koi fish swims.

The inside of the house is truly beautiful, a mix of stone and old wood, with beautiful mostly wood furnishings, including a bar, a piano, and the desk where I am writing this, which sits at the top of a beautiful staircase. The upper floor has 3 bedrooms, including the master bedroom and bathroom, another bathroom, an open office area above the stairs, a very large wrap-around balcony, and another balcony off the master bedroom. The first floor has a good-sized living room, small bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and dining area, which has a large table with 8 chairs. Also on the first floor, connected to the house but with separate entrances, is the caretaker’s quarters and bath. The dining area opens out to the covered picnic table and swinging bench, beyond which is the pool.

In the front of the house there is a steep one-car driveway, with a gate in front, a smaller gate to the side for people, and on the side another gate that leads to a drive where 2-3 more vehicles could be parked. Behind the drive is an outdoor grill and sink, and beyond that is the gazebo, next to the pool. On the other side of the pool is a bathroom, and toward the back of the pool is an outdoor shower and a small structure that encloses the pool equipment and some storage. There is more storage space on the upper balcony. Storage space within the house is very limited.

Tagaytay really is a paradise, to me. Unlike most of the Philippines, it is rarely unbearably hot here. It is perhaps rainy and windy a bit too much for my taste, but I’ll take that any day over unbearable heat. When it’s too cold or rainy you can be comfortable inside. When it’s too hot you really can’t be comfortable, unless you have excellent air conditioning wherever you go, which gets very expensive.

Most days the weather is very pleasant here, near-perfect.

My new life here is just getting started, and so far it’s been full of activity, mostly moving, adjusting to the various moves and changes, and dealing with day-to-day issues like eating, transportation, computers, Internet and phone service, plumbing, the dog, the family, the car, etc.

But I’ve had some time to relax as well. I love the new pace of my life. It seems like the last 50 years have been way too hectic, with way too many demands upon me, too much pressure and stress. Yes, I made good money, and I loved my work, but I am so very, very glad to be done with it.

I have now something I’ve wanted for a long time – the chance to make a truly fresh new start, to explore and discover what I want to do with my life.

I’ve always wanted to be a writer, and for almost my entire working life so far I was paid to write. However, I’d like to write with a bit more choice of my subject matter, and I suspect that software documentation may not be my top choice.

Although I may end up doing more software documentation to help fund my new life on an interim basis.

I’m still very excited about starting a technical writing outsourcing company, and working with a university to help them develop a technical writing curriculum. But I’m becoming intrigued with the possibility of writing books, books that I choose to write, and putting my time and energy into self-publishing and marketing those books. I don’t expect they will sell themselves, but I may be able to make a modest living by writing 1-2 books a year and marketing and selling them.

The wonderful thing is I need so much less income now.

Perhaps my next blog post will focus on the differences in cost of living between here and the USA, and other kinds of differences.

 

P.S.  A couple hours later, we had running water again. As I suspected it was one of the levers outside. I don’t yet understand all the valves and levers. It was also related to preparations for the plumber’s visit tomorrow.

March 8, 2011 – 11:28 am Categories: Uncategorized | Comments (1)

Explosive Culture Shock: New Year’s Eve in the Philippines

Last night was my first New Year’s Eve here in my new country. Compared to the last 49 in the USA, it was a bit more, well, explosive.
In the USA, fireworks are often a key highlight of the New Year’s Eve experience. Although some years I did not see fireworks. Frankly alcohol, especially champagne, seems more essential in the USA than fireworks for New Year’s. And the fireworks, those years I saw them, were massive displays that reached very high into the sky, viewed by thousands or millions, staged and executed by professionals, paid for usually by the city or perhaps some corporate sponsors.
Here in the Philippines, alcohol is optional. Fireworks are not. And the fireworks are much more democratic or participatory. Yes, there are some laws regarding fireworks here. But, like alcohol on New Year’s, complying with law is generally optional in the Philippines. Everyone sets off fireworks on New Year’s Eve, even children as young as 7.
The result is that you don’t have to be on top of a tall building or on the shore of a body of water to see fireworks. Just go outside. And to hear them, well you don’t really have a choice about that part. The fireworks here are much more about sound than light.
Last year I was here for Christmas but not New Year’s. I had an injured hand at the time and I was afraid of it being hit by stray fireworks. Although I was not injured this year, in hindsight I think that was a good decision.
The booms and cracks started the morning of New Year’s Eve day. The noise gradually accelerated throughout the day. Not only booms and cracks, but very loud music, car horns, and handheld paper horns that produced an amazing level of sound.
At 1 pm we moved my new car underneath the neighbor’s carport, to protect it from falling fireworks.
Between 11 pm and 1 am the noise was intermittently almost deafening.
We all went out to the road in front of the house. Luckily I was with my family, who were familiar with the various types of explosives. Whenever the neighbors set one of the short fiery things in the middle of the road that produce a sonic boom, I would be warned to cover my ears. I think if I had not I might now be deaf. Each time I did, after a wait I experienced what I call the sonic boom. I felt the wind from the explosion on my legs, worried if I had lost something down there, that’s how loud it was.
By about 11:30 pm there was not only lots of sound but lots of light. Beautiful displays similar to what I’ve seen in the USA, but not just from one direction. All over the area various neighbors who had sprung for some of the more expensive fireworks saved their best for last. Of course, it was all a bit less innocent than in the USA. In addition to trying to see the best displays, you had to be concerned with protecting yourself from the fallout, the smoke, the noise. and any misdirected firings. It was kind of like being in a war zone, except with less casualties.
While I’m not aware of any casualties in our immediate vicinity, by the morning of New Year’s Eve the newspapers were reporting about 100 injuries already.
There were people in the street, groups setting off fireworks, others walking, and also vehicles. The vehicles, whether cars, jeepneys (small buses), motorized tricycles, motorcycles, ambulances, or trucks, all went very fast, flashing lights and blaring horns. At first I thought this was to warn pedestrians not to set off fireworks as they went past, or to stay out of the road. Fear probably explained their speed. But the noise and lights may have just been part of the celebration.
And of course, my family participated too. At first I was not very participatory. The Philippines is in general too noisy a country for me, and I was trying to reduce the noise, not add to it. I was handed a bag of a dozen little boxes of explosive caps. You throw one on the ground and it cracks. I thought initially I was given them to prevent their use. But eventually I gave in and handed them out to the kids, even using some myself. When they started burning little sticks I yelled, “Don’t do that near me! Go away!” Little roman candles soon followed. I was given a hat to protect my head from fallout.
It was a strange mixture of excitement, celebration, fear, shock, and love. The best part, of course, was being with my family here and experiencing it together.
A few minutes after midnight we all went inside for the traditional midnight buffet.
The noise of course continued for a few more hours.

January 1, 2011 – 3:16 am Categories: Uncategorized | Comments (1)

A new beginning

After 50 years living in the USA, tomorrow I move to the Philippines. I’ve never lived in another country before, so this is a new adventure.

In the midst of the worst economy in 70 years, I quit a very good job and changed my life completely to move to another country. Why?

There are two kinds of reasons.

1) Love. I finally found the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. He is a Filipino citizen. Legally, the only ways for us to live together are a) both move to a third country, or b) I move to the Philippines.

a) is not a good option – why should we both live far away from our families?

Many US citizens do not understand this reality. Because my lover is male (as I am), I cannot sponsor him to live in the USA. Even if we had same-sex marriage in California (as we did for 5 months in 2008), that would not help. Like most of the 1100+ rights and responsibilities that come with marriage, immigration is a federal right. Under the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the US federal government is actually required to discriminate against same-sex couples.

The other part that many US citizens find hard to believe is that it is extremely difficult, often impossible, to get a tourist visa to visit the US. Since 2001 this has been, for most people from most other countries, a very high hurdle, and often insurmountable. I hope that one day soon my boyfriend can visit here. For now it’s just not in the cards.

2) Opportunity. I’ve been wanting to make a change for a long time. After 26 years writing software documentation, hiring and managing technical writers, working in corporate America, I want to do something else. I’m very excited about starting a technical writing outsourcing company in the Philippines.

A few words about technical writing. What is it? It is not programming. It is not software design. We technical writers write the online help, user guides, installation guides, online information databases and other information sets that explain to users how to use software and hardware.

I have observed that technical writers differ in how they emphasize three key aspects of the job:

People

Words

Technology

Many technical writers are most interested in the technology they write about. They may choose a job based primarily on the basis of the technology that they will be able to write about in that job.

However, that’s not me. I’m a PWT technical writer, meaning that I’m most interested in people, I’m also interested in words (in writing, in the English language), and I’m least interested in the technology.

But the opportunity to start a new business is only one of the opportunities available to me in the Philippines. For example, I have a Master of Arts degree in International Affairs. In the Philippines that degree may qualify me to teach in a college or university. In the US, probably not. There is a great need for management skill in the Philippines. The economy there is growing much faster than the US economy. The banking system is much stronger.

The Philippines is the first or second (after Singapore) most English-language friendly country in Asia. The US occupied the country for 50 years, basically the first half of the twentieth century. Although the Spanish were there much longer (400 years), our occupation is more recent. All the road signs are in English. Almost all Filipinos speak at least a little bit of English. Most learn English in grade school.

The first 4 times I visited the Philippines, I thought English is all you need there. This is true for tourists, but as I realized on my 5th trip, the place runs on Tagalog (also called Filipino). After I move there Iwill learn Tagalog. (And perhaps I’ll become a bilingual, bicontinental, bisexual blogger. But I longer wear bifocals, so I won’t be a bilingual, bicontintental, bisexual, bifocular blogger.)

Yes, I am bisexual. Not a big deal, unless you are one of those people who happens to think bisexuals don’t exist. We do. More on that in future posts. I do have some observations about cultural differences between the USA and the Philippines, and in particular about how sexual minorities are treated in each culture. But I’ll wait to go into that in future blog posts.

One more opportunity for me in this move has to do with my passion in life – The Hunger Project.

http://www.thp.org

The Hunger Project is a global movement to sustainably end hunger for all humanity. I started volunteering with The Hunger Project in 1981. We are now reaching 35 million people in over 22,000 villages in 13 countries, on 3 continents. We empower the poorest of the poor to be the authors of their own development, and achieve for themselves and their families and communities lives of dignity, self-reliance, and sufficiency. We do all this on an annual global budget of about $12 million a year. The Hunger  Project is one of the most cost-effective development organizations on the planet. One of the reasons we are so effective and cost-effective is that we directly confront the most important root cause of extreme poverty – gender inequality. When you effectively empower the leadership of poor rural women, they transform their communities.

About 90% of the funding of The Hunger Project comes from individuals. In recent years only a tiny fraction of those funds have come from East Asia. I plan to start Hunger Project fundraising in the Philippines, and to catalyze fundraising throughout East Asia.

December 6, 2010 – 7:56 am Categories: Uncategorized | Comments (7)

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